And We're Supposed to Save Daylight Why?

Did you remember to "March Forward"?
Man, it's scary just how governed we are by time. I'd have to say the measurement of time is, by and large, one of humanity's suckier inventions. Necessary to our civilization, to be sure, but probably not required to be civilized. See the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy for related commentary: its opening sequence had a profound effect on my young mind. (I was nine at the time.)
How much of a hold does time have over this household? Well, I spent half an hour last night changing clocks simply because the American government decided (on the basis of not much evidence at all, that moving the clocks ahead three weeks early would somehow save energy. The Canadian government followed along, of course: problems can ensue when your largest trading partner is living an hour ahead of you.
(Oh, really? And yet, while everybody notices the three hour difference between, say, Pacific and Eastern time, nobody seems to care overmuch about it.)
Most annoying of all, I'm going to have to repeat the process with all our electronics in three weeks, when they're programmed to jump ahead an hour, not realizing they've already done so.
I lost an hour of blessed sleep for this?

As a kid, I always thought "daylight saving" time was what you called it in the winter. After all, aren't you "saving up" daylight, then, so there can be more of it in the summer? That was before I came to understand that more or less daylight isn't a function of what the clock says, but rather an astronomical determination that, like most matters astronomical, appears simple but is in reality rather complicated.

These days, the shifting of the clocks doesn't have much of an effect around here, beyond the inevitable discovery--likely about three weeks hence--that we forgot one clock, which will be gamely labouring away keeping time, an hour behind all its fellows. But even though this DST business isn't earth or life shattering, I do resent it a bit. There's no good reason for it, in my mind.

According to Wikipedia (which I still choose to trust, despite its recent scandal), Daylight Savings Time as a unified concept was first proposed by an avid golfer who didn't like having his rounds called on account of twilight. So start them earlier, says I: a common refrain around here. Late for work? You should have left earlier. Tired? You should have gone to bed earlier. Many people would dismiss me for a simpleton, but there's much to be said for a simplified life, not least of which is not having to worry so damned much about time.

So: all this for someone's golf game? Well, yes and no: it turns out that most people like being able to do more in the evenings. (Odd: Edison's lightbulb and its proliferation came long before DST.) Eva and I are anomalies: one of the reasons we like winter is because we're both photosenstive to varying degrees. We prefer darkness. Hence we harbour dislike for anything specifically designed to inflict more sunlight on us.
What with the human race's increasing disdain for sleep, it wouldn't surprise me to see Daylight Saving Time extended so sunset occurs around midnight in midsummer. There certainly seems to be no shortage of people willing to stay up that late. Of course, that would mean a later sunrise--no problem for a night owl.
More and more, it feels as if the world is leaving me behind. Today it's only an hour. Tomorrow...